Hello everybody and happy Saturday! I hope you're all having a lovely Saturday in the sunshine and relaxing. It's only one more week until daylight savings starts here in Melbourne which will be fantastic (because more light is always fabulous for our mental health) and Luke and I are staying at an Air Bnb next weekend with some cute cows and goats! Hopefully, I get some cute photos.
Today, I got my hair done (see above photo), a refresh of the blonde and a cut. Very happy. And I also got to cuddle up with my hairdresser's doggo Gigi for a lot of the time there who was SOOO cute - she's a toy poodle and adorable. Although I did get home and suddenly become WAY more fatigued than I felt this morning, so that really sucks! But hey, 3-6 months on an iron supplement, and hopefully we'll be seeing a difference. The IBS symptoms have already started to get worse - it's no fun. I'd just like it if my stomach didn't cramp for once in my life. Kthx. I really wanted to get a few more things done around the house this afternoon but I just needed to lay down (and hey, there's always tomorrow and we've always got Luke to help as well).
Last night Luke and I watched "Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father" - which I've already seen but it's nice to go back and watch the silly shows with Luke, especially when you are in dire need of a laugh. I highly recommend.
I need to remember to water my plants - it's on my to-do list but I keep forgetting so maybe if write it down in multiple places (and public spaces), I will remember to do it sometime this weekend so my plants survive. Welcome to my brain in these stream of consciosuness writings. consciousness
I'm also surprised at the amount of people who have been reading my blogs so far - thank you! And I hope you continue to read them and enjoy them. Let me know what you'd like me to talk about. I am 100% open to suggestions. I'm also kinda surprised as I did not think a lot of those reading it would be the ones to read it, if that makes sense. So I hope you like it!
Today, I wanna tackle "The Mandela Effect" - a phenomenon where people have a collective shared false memory of something. It was dubbed the Mandela Effect because many people believed (or had a shared collective memory) that Nelson Mandela had passed away in prison in the 1980s. However, he did not pass away until 2013 but many people, to this day, still share this false memory. There may be many contributing factors as to why the Mandela Effect or false memories occur, but according to psychology (yes I know that's not grammatically correct, come at me bro), some factors that lead to false memories are suggestibility, misinformation, source misattribution, and associated information becoming activated to name a few. I won't get into these here (as there are a lot) but there are a few articles that I would recommend reading if you would like to learn more:
French, A., 2019. The Mandela effect and new memory. Correspondences, 6 (2)
Prasad, D. and Bainbridge, W.A., 2022. The Visual Mandela Effect as evidence for shared and specific false memories across people. Psychological Science, 33 (12), pp.1971-1988
Cuncic, A., 2023, 'Mandela Effect Examples, Origins, and Explanations' (the one in here about NZ is so funny - I'm sure there are still people out there who are convinced that both NZ and Australia aren't real). I mean I've lived in both countries so I can reassure you that both places are 1000% real. But you do you boo.
I'd love to also discuss some examples of the Mandela Effect today that I think are really interesting:
The monopoly man does not have a monocle - https://www.monopolyland.com/monopoly-man-monocle/
Pikachu's tail has always been yellow (some people remember a black stripe) - https://www.cbr.com/pikachu-black-tail-belief-theory/#:~:text=Why%20Do%20So%20Many%20People,as%20a%20shared%20false%20memory.
The Star Wars line is really "No, I am your father," NOT "Luke, I am your father" - https://mandelaeffect.fandom.com/wiki/Luke,_I_am_your_father
It's 'Berenstain Bears' not 'Berenstein Bears' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berenstain_Bears#:~:text=kits%2C%20and%20notepads.-,Name%20confusion,instance%20of%20the%20Mandela%20effect.
'Froot Loops' not 'Fruit Loops' - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-11163257/Froot-Loops-not-spelt-Fruit-Loops-Mandela-Effect.html
Those are just a few famous examples of the Mandela Effect. There's for sure a plethora of them out there. It's really interesting to think about how we as a society have collective false memories. Doesn't that just make your skin crawl a little bit? There's an interesting YouTuber Michelle Platti who discusses some more contemporary Mandela Effects on her channel if you would like to check her out.
I find phenomenons like the Mandela Effect really interesting because it's just so random that multiple people in the world (and those who have no connections to each other whatsoever) all manage to create false memories about things. It makes me think about ideas like 'collective consciousness' which is the idea that shared morals, beliefs, and ideas operate as a collective source within society. I think this was first coined by Durkheim but many philosophers have discussed the notion in more detail over the years. The Mandela Effect also makes me think about things like "ESP - Extrasensory Perception" - which is often an idea labelled as pseudo-science and don't get me wrong, I don't know if I believe it either, but it is really interesting to think about. ESP is an ability to find out information through the mind - whether that's through something paranormal or meditation is still up for debate. But hey, if there's ever more research done on this, I'd love to know more. What do you all think about these things? Have you got a Mandela Effect you'd like to share! Let me know in the comments below.
I think that's all I've got the energy for today so we'll end on a question! For today's question, I want to know what your favourite Tim Tams flavour is (and if you're outside of AUS/NZ, what your favourite biscuit/cookie is)?
My favourite Tim Tams flavour is Double Coated and I also like Original (classic).
Ka kite! See you tomorrow.
Much love,
Ash xx
Double coat is the best Tim Tam flavour and I will fight anyone who says otherwise xo
No Tim Tams for me. Like the new haircut.